Customer Reviews

Millions (Full-Screen Edition)

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Maverick British Director Danny Boyle has really outdone himself with Millions, an absolutely terrific, sincere, and intrinsically spiritual family film about money, faith, the power of imagination, and the unquestionable ability to believe that everything is going to turn out all right in the end. Boyle uses his trademark visual flair to produce a gorgeously heartfelt and emotionally delicate children's movie that is all about being good, sometimes being bad, and often being downright scared.

Set in and around a new suburban housing development in Northern England, the story centers on lonesome, motherless spiritually receptive seven-year-old Damian (Alex Etel, making a sensational film debut), his hardheaded 9-year-old brother Anthony (Lewis McGibbon), and their adoring, loving father, Ronnie (James Nesbitt). The film begins as Damian, Anthony, and Ronnie are moving to a new house because their old home is full of memories, where once upon a time they lived with a loving wife and mother.

Recently deceased, the missing woman hangs over this woeful threesome, and her absence shapes their days and nights. They see this move as a fresh start, a way to squash the ghosts of the past, while also looking forward to a happier and more comfortable future. Anthony is the financially savvier of the two boys - consumer orientated and realistic, he's right up with the latest exchange rates, as the Country is just about to convert to Euros. Damian, quieter and more sensitive, spends the days on his own, building a house of discarded cardboard boxes next to the local train line. Possessed with a vivid imagination, he loves reading about saints who sometimes come alive for him, and works on elevating his mum to the ranks of one of them.

Then temptation falls from the sky, literally, when a when a big black overstuffed bag full of money falls on Damian. He thinks it's a message from God, and faced with the burden of responsibility, he decides to give as much of the money away to the poor as he can. Of course, the streetwise Anthony has other plans - he wants to invest it in real estate, or get it transferred into Euros (he doesn't want to pay the forty percent tax on it). But the original owners of the money are hot on the trail and things start to get very frightening for Damien when a leather-jacketed, malevolent looking man turns up demanding that the boy to hand the money back.

Fast paced and visually stunning, the movie jumps along from scene to scene catching the viewer and quickly reeling us in. With a cute face that is splashed with freckles, Damien is a gravely beautiful child, who believes he's on speaking terms with the saints (they regularly appear with translucent halos on their heads). The young actor brings to the role the strange ethereality of those children who never fit in, but curl into their own private worlds, giggling at jokes no one else hears.

Millions has plenty of story for both adults and children to appreciate and its sense of fun is totally infectious. The characters are all absolutely endearing and lovely to watch, including a sweetheart for Ronnie, a quirky group of Latter-day Saints, a bunch of train robbers, an eccentric local police officer, a boogeyman, and of course all the nomadic martyrs. Mr. Boyle uses all manner of enjoyable tricks to show us what his characters see; more poignantly, he also shows us what Damien sees, and it's a world where absurdity is an everyday occurrence and what takes places inside a young boy's head fights for shelf space with what's happening in the outside world. Mike Leonard March 05.

This was a great film that really shows what money can do to people. It is also fascinating that it is the youngest person who actually has philanthropic ideas on how to spend it.

Spurred on by the urgency that England is switching over to the Euro in a few days (not gonna happen,) freckle-faced Damien and his brother, Anthony, have to think fast. Damien feels the money came from God and therefore should be used to help the less fortunate. Anthony feels like they *are* the less fortunate and should use it to help themselves. Damien is also helped by odd visions of saints who counsel him. Meanwhile, Anthony is out pricing real estate.

Of course, tossing money on unsuspecting children is not really God's style, as the boys' father states. The money was actually tossed by a bank robber who wants it back at any cost.

This is a fun yet profound film that accurately shows greed, kindness, faith, and selfishness all resulting from the same event. The viewer is left with a satisfied feeling and even a few introspective questions like, "What would I do if the same thing happened to me?"

Highly recommended--

Danny Boyle ('28 Days Later', 'Trainspotting', 'A Life Less Ordinary') has a way with stories that transports a good script (in this case one by Frank Cottrell Boyce) into a cinematic range that creates magic. MILLIONS may seem like a little family tale on the surface, but in Boyle's hands this story about the struggle between Janus ethics vaults off into magical realism, happily taking the audience along for a journey of wonder and joy and the importance of charity.

Damian (Alexander Nathan Etel) and his older brother Anthony (Lewis Owen McGibbon) are moved by their father Ronnie (James Nesbitt) to a new housing project after the untimely death of the boys' mother. The brothers are devoted to each other yet Anthony is the pragmatist while Damian is the dreamer, a lad who regularly has visions and poignant converations with dead saints, always asking if they know anything about St. Maureen (his recently deceased mother). Damian believes in miracles and when suddenly a Nike bag containing a quarter of a million British pounds falls on his playhouse he believes it is from God and that it is his responsibility to distribute the money to the poor. When he shares the secret with Anthony, the latter's psyche begins to organize ways to spend and invest the money - because the British sterling will soon convert to the Euro making the bag's stash useless.

The journey of how the two brothers cope with their instant fortune and how they cope with their family minus one forms the line of the film. There are good guys, bad guys, various saints, hilarious encounters with mundane ethically bifurcated folks like a Mormon team - all of whom make the visual and emotional aspects of this film thoroughly entertaining. The actors, especially young Atel, are superb and Boyle's use of the magical ignites the story into an unforgettable fable and tale of humanity. Highly recommended for everyone to see. Grady Harp, November 05.

Hagiography:: the study of the lives of the saints.

I've always wanted to use that word "hagiography", and this may be my only opportunity in a movie review. If I knew more about the study of the lives of saints or Catholic conventions, perhaps I would know whether "Damian" has a religious connotation beyond some familiar religiously-themed movie characters, and whether "Damian", a saintly little boy who is the hero of this piece, is symbolic. But while I muse and research, please go see this movie.

Remember when you see this movie that it is a parable, a fable, a teaching tale. If one takes it as the literal story of two young motherless English brothers who are deciding what to do with a bag of money which fell from the sky into Damian's playhouse, one might become impatient with the actions of one or the other brother or of some thin spots in the plot. But after the initial ten minutes of camera tricks and time-lapse photography, and general show-casing of the director's (Danny Boyle's) camera skills already recognized from "Trainspotting", the story itself begins to shine through. The charm of a youngster enamoured of the lives of the saints, and who may be able to communicate with the saints, begins to assert itself.

While Damian believes the money is from God and must be distributed to the poor, his too-street-smart older brother believes they should invest in real estate. This dilemma has a time limit, however, as the British pounds in the bag must be converted into Euros, or become worthless, within days. Also spurred by the clock's ticking down on the value of this cache is the very ungodly thief who stole the money in the first place and who wants it back. And thusly is the question whether the love of money begets all evil illuminated by the light and the dark of this fable.

Alexander Nathan Etel, the unworldly and generous little boy who wants to give all the money away, nonetheless steals the show. If enough people see him in this sweet (but neither mawkish nor maudlin) tale, we may hear his name again in award season. He's really good, and completely charming. The movie is our own little heavenly gift, and we may keep its moral and the good feeling from it as long as we like. B+

Well worth the ticket price of movies these days! This lovely film focuses on the story of two little boys who have a bag of money literally descend on them, and of course, the older brother is a financially savvy entrepreneur and the younger one a visionary with a heart of gold. It is a great story for every reason imaginable. While the younger lad sees Saintis who may or may not actually be there and is concerned rpimarily for the welfare of his Mom in the afterlife, the boy sees also the importance of sharing wealth that really isn't yours to begin with. The father, his new girlfriend and the older brother are all ultimately enraptured by the young fella's heart, and along the way there are hilarious episodes, bad guys, silly pranks.
Danny Boyle has got it absolutely right what it means to be a kid. This film is perfect. And as an extraspecial gift, he has used a Clash tune more creatively than anyone could ever have imagined!
Go see this, you'll be enchanted.

At night, next to a train line, in a scene lit by a burning pile of old currency, a boy asks, "What was your miracle?"

But the viewer who has just watched the entertaining and renewing Millions already knows the answer to that question. Just as she knows that despite a looming and scary criminal, nothing bad will befall young Damian. The saints who regularly visit him, to light joints or recast the miracle of the loaves and fishes, simply will not permit it.

With that knowledge assured virtually from the opening scene of Millions, one can revel in the many nuanced pleasures it provides. Start with the acting -- the two young brothers, Alex Etel and Lewis McGibbon, are natural and affecting, real in their individual responses to the loss of their mother. James Nesbitt at their father, coping with his own grief as -- by turns stern and gentle -- he tries to help the boys through theirs, is just as good. The cinematography, speeding up some scenes and fast cutting between others, achieves a fluid mix of reality and imagination, life through Damian's eyes. The many touches of humor, particularly the sequences as the family tries to convert pounds to euros before the pound ceases being legal tender, bring a lightness to faith. Some scenes replay in the mind well after the film ends -- Damian alone against a wall in his new school, held close by the camera that then pans slowly back gradually encompassing more and more of the school yard with kids at play, but never -- even as he grows steadily smaller -- leaving Damian's isolation. Or the distant shot of him struggling up a green hill with boxes filled, we eventually see, with doves that he then releases as St. Francis of Assisi appears with two doves of his own. And, finally, another moment of the money bonfire scene, when Damian's brother Anthony looks down from a small hill through the fire at the two figures and finally understands and shares his brother's visions.

Millions should not be missed.

I was staying at my grandmother's house when I received Millions from Netflix. She doesn't own a DVD player, so we watched it on my $ 1100 HP desktop notebook with built-in speakers, a high definition widescreen monitor, a DVD ROM/DVD-RW/CD-RW, firewire ports for uploading video, and more USB ports than you can shake a stick at. We set it up on her kitchen table, popped in the DVD, turned out the lights, and watched in awe (and uncomfortable wooden chairs) as Danny Boyle's masterpiece unfolded before us.

If you ask me, family films are the most difficult types of film to make because the genre provides itself an excuse for poor quality: it's for kids, who cares? But when a family film is willing to touch on difficult subjects (family, economy, religion) in an honest and fascinating way without condescending to the audience, that's when you achieve magic.

Damian and Anthony are dealing with a difficult point in their lives. Their mother just died, and they're adjusting to a new town. When they first step foot into their new home, Anthony is ecstatic that they were able to get such a big house at such a small price given the trends of real estate value and such (he gets his own room!). Damian, on the other hand, isn't really concerned with this. He's busy getting visits from his favorite saints who pop in occasionally to give him advice. They might know "Saint Maureen." Besides, all this extra space is pretty intimidating (and he has to sleep alone).

One day, a bag full of money falls from the sky, and the brothers have to decide what to do with it. They don't have much time because in two weeks Britain switches to the Euro. Damian naturally wants to give it to the poor, but this proves to be more complicated than he expected for a variety of reasons. Anthony naturally wants to invest in a condo or open a bank account so they keep their value even after the currency change. Again, there's a problem: ten-year-olds can't purchase real estate or open bank accounts with parental supervision.

Granted, the movie is a little predictable. It doesn't take much imagination to figure out where the money came from, and I don't really have to explain who that suspicious man is that Damian meets where the money fell. His final encounter with a saint was inevitable from the opening scenes (even my little sister predicted the lines of their exchage), but none of that matters when a film has this much power, honesty, and heart.

Danny Boyle is a director known for making films you shouldn't take your kids to see. Trainspotting, more than any other film I've seen, understands the nature of addiction. 28 Days Later is one of the bleakest and most intense horror films of the new millenium. Here he has crafted his best film by applying the same insight to a much sweeter film. I'm hard-pressed to think of any other family film since The Hunchback of Notre Dame to dig this deep this well. A true masterpiece and one of the best films of the year.

This is one of those movies that you sometimes run across purely by accident, and once you've seen it you're so glad you did. At least, that's what happened to me.

The story is a smart "what-if" sort of premise, starting with the idea that Great Britain is in a rush to convert their legal tender from Pounds Sterling to the Euro. As the movie begins, the final date for this changeover is a little over a week away, after which the Pound will no longer be usable anywhere in Britain. That's the story behind the story -- the real story begins when Damian, a young boy whose mother died recently, and who is prone to visions of saints, discovers a bag full of money (British pounds, of course) that has literally seemed to fall right out of the sky. Damian tells his brother Anthony about the find, and they both agree that the only answer is that they should keep it a secret from their father, and spend it themselves.

So, how can two boys spend hundreds of thousands of pounds in just over a week? This is itself causes problems, as they both have different ideas of how to spend it. Kind-hearted Damian wants to find people who need it and give it away to them, while Anthony, a little older and more cynical, is more concerned with using it to buy status and influence among their friends.

The story that unfolds from this premise is clever and sharp -- never overly serious but always staying honest, keeping the eye on the ball and conveying a message about money and what it can do to people. The real story of "Millions" is the story of family, of the brotherhood between Damian and Anthony, of their relationship with their father, and of the missing place where their mother once stood. It has moments of hilarity, moments of fear, and moments of touching love, all of which balance nicely and make this a family film which is truly good for everyone in the family to see. It doesn't pander or water down its story, but it also doesn't overdo it.

"Millions" is a little wonder of a film, a gift that you can give yourself just by watching it. Its message about money and what it does is poignant and timely, but its deeper message about family, both family lost and family found, is what really makes it shine.

Highly recommended for viewers of any age, who maintain at least a little bit of a sense of wonder.

*Millions* was an interesting movie about money falling "from the sky" and seeing how people react with money.

The movie takes place in England. The family of three (a father and his 2 sons) move out of a house to a new place. They're all grieving for the wife/mother in their own way.

Damian is an imaginative young boy, who has no problem entertaining himself. He carries imaginary conversations with notable Christian saints. Anthony is the older brother who puts on this tough look.

One day, a large bag of money falls on top of Damian's play fort, which Damian notifies Anthony. They both decide to keep hush about the money. However, they both have different approaches of how to spend the money. Damian gives money to whomever needs it the most, especially to those he perceives as poor. Meanwhile, Anthony is tight with money by spending it only on himself or on things that will increase values.

However, there are 2 things going on as well. Britain will be converting their pounds to euros. So, pounds must either be spent or deposited to bank accounts within a few days. Otherwise, the pounds will no longer be valid. Another thing is that someone else wants that bag of money. The robber gets a hold of Damian and threatens him. Damian is scared and agrees to comply with the robber's demands.

However, the money becomes overwhelming for the boys. They get their dad involved as well as his new girlfriend.

*Millions* is a wonderful movie about how people react to a large sum of money. Of course, there are other sub-stories in this movie. If you're a softie, there is one part of the movie that'll make you cry. Just have that Kleenex ready...

"Millions" is a stylish and heart-warming family film. It centers around Damian (Alex Etel), a boy who is suffering from the loss of his mother. He is living in a new setting, a middle-class suburb in England, with his older brother, Anthony (Lewis McGibbin) and Ronnie, his father (James Nesbitt). One day a piece of luggage filled with money hits his homemade fortress nestled close to the railroad. Of course he and his brother are astonished, but Damian, who has a great devotion to saints, has a different vision of using the money than his practical (and more selfish) brother. Wonderfully, the saints actually do visit him, and it is St. Francis who encourages him to give the money to the poor. However, keeping the loot a secret may be a miracle in itself. Both boys have funny ways of hiding and using the money. Damien sets out to find the poor and gives the money away whenever he can; Anthony shops for novelty items on the Internet. Although, as might be expected, complications set in for them: Damian tells a strange man (Christopher Fulford) that he has lots of money, an innocent mistake which makes the thief stalk after the boys and the loot. Damian also finds out that the money was stolen, which provides a moral dilemma for him. (He thought it had fallen from heaven.) Creating even more suspense is an impending deadline: The British pounds are soon converting to Euros, so the family must convert the money in modest sums at a number of different bank branches.

The plot and atmosphere of the movie are worth the price of admission. It is sometimes edited like a stylish video with ethereal music and painting-like colors that surely must have been embellished for the screen. Perhaps the best aspect of "Millions" is Damien himself. He is infatuated with the saints, but he is so genuinely good that the saints presented pale in comparison to him. As apparitions, the saints presented are the least realistic portions of the film. (For example, St. Clare smoking and St. Peter cussing aren't cute, funny, or theologically accurate portraits of saints. And, it should be noted, that if St. Peter did appear, he would give a young boy advice, not just shrug and tell him it is a "free will" decision, like he should decide on his own. Giving good advice doesn't take away free will--even from a young boy.) Later, Damian's mother appears as a reassuring presence, and she says that he is the miracle she had performed in life. Much like the French film, "Ponette," her appearance gives us all a reason to believe. "Millions" is a genuinely funny, heart-warming, and edgily suspenseful film. As entertainment, "Millions" makes the viewer feel like, well,...a million.